This Tuesday, Universal Music Group (UMG) goes public.

This introduction highlights the renewal of a successful company and yet another financial blow for Vincent Bolloré.

Universal reigns supreme in the global recorded music market with over 30% of the shares and control of prestigious labels such as EMI, Capitol, Def Jam, Polydor, Blue Note, Decca and Deutsche Gramophon.

The major alone represents 92.6% of Vivendi group net profit, or 452 million out of 488 million in the first half.

Universal alone also provides 46% of the group's 3.8 billion euros in turnover in the first half of 2021.

6 billion euros for Bolloré

But for the management of Vivendi, owner in particular of the Canal + group, of the communications giant Havas or of the publisher Editis, the time has nevertheless come to let Universal continue its journey alone and to refocus Vivendi on publishing, advertising and the media. "We are creating the conditions so that the valuation of Vivendi as a whole is greater than the sum of the parts that compose it", justifies the chairman of the management board Arnaud de Puyfontaine who sees "bridges between publishing and the audiovisual industry, between the gaming (video game) and live performance, between music and advertising ”.

In May 2021, Vivendi announced its intention to list UMG in Amsterdam by September 27 and previously distribute 60% of the capital to shareholders in the form of shares.

In the process, in the summer he sold 10% to the American financier Bill Ackman, for 3.5 billion euros, pushing up the valuation of UMG a little more a few months before its IPO.

Vivendi will ultimately only keep 10% of its major shares, of which around 18% will be held by the Bolloré group (around € 6 billion).

The goose with the golden records

Universal Music offered itself in December 2020 the entire catalog of Bob Dylan songs, more than 600 titles, in addition to stars who regularly reach the top places of the global sales and streaming charts. In addition to sure values ​​like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones or Andrea Bocelli, she has also signed several successful artists, like Drake, who monopolizes the top of the Spotify charts, and the three most listened to female artists on streaming platforms in 2020, Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande.

Despite the drop in physical sales linked to the Covid crisis and its share of health restrictions, UMG - entered the fold of Vivendi in 2000 with at the time the film studios, sold in 2004 to NBC - benefited from the craze for subscription and streaming: its revenues from online music listening increased 24.7% in the first half of 2021.

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  • Vincent Bollore

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